The present invention relates to a structure facilitating assembly of fiber-optic communication components, and more particularly to a structure enabling well-aligned connection of optical fibers in assembling fiber-optic communication components. The structure includes a lower and an upper support being provided with small and big V-shaped cuts, respectively, for receiving optical fibers and collimators, respectively. The upper support is inverted to seat on a middle recess of the lower support, such that tangent planes passing top points of the optical fibers and the collimators are contained in horizontal planes passing openings of the small and the big V-shaped cuts, respectively, and axes of the collimators are either in alignment with or horizontally coplanar with axes of the optical fibers. The two supports together define a central positioning cavity between them for receiving different function elements between the collimators, so that fiber-optic communication components with reduced volume and increased reliability could be easily assembled in mass production at reduced cost.
It is known that a fiber-optic communication component usually has the function of coupling a light beam transmitted via an input fiber to a collimator, so that the collimated beam passes one or more function elements included in the communication component before it passes a mating collimator and is coupled to an output fiber to continue transmission of the light beam. The collimators may be Graded Index (GRIN) lenses, C-lenses, aspheric lenses, or other suitable lenses. In all cases, the collimators may be cylindrical members. Since the optical fibers usually have a fiber core from only several microns (xcexcm or 10xe2x88x926 m) to several decades of microns in diameter, any alignment error in coupling the fibers would result in increased insertion loss of the communication component, making the same failed to meet required specifications. Therefore, it is very important for any structure for assembling fiber-optic communication components to have the function of precisely aligning and connecting optical fibers.
In a conventional way of manufacturing the fiber-optic communication components, all related parts are usually positioned on a precision platform. Alignments and adjustments of degree of freedom in five directions, namely, X-axis, Y-axis, Z-axis, angle xcex8, and angle "PHgr", (see FIG. 2A) for these parts are performed through control of the precision platform. Thereafter, the aligned and adjusted parts are fixed in place by way of bonding or welding to complete the assembly of the fiber-optic communication components. In the above-described assembling structure, the whole process of alignment and adjustment is time and effort consuming, and it is uneasy to maintain the relative positions of the assembled parts in a stable condition. The bonded parts tend to be affected by external environments and are therefore subject to changes in their relative positions, resulting in alignment error. In the case of welding parts together, the high temperature occurred in the process of welding would result in displacement of previously aligned parts and accordingly increased insertion loss. In brief, the conventional structure for assembling the fiber-optic communication components has many disadvantages, including the involvement of complicate and troublesome optical alignments and adjustments, the insufficient function of aligning and adjusting optical fibers, etc., that prevent effective control of production cost and increased productivity of the fiber-optic communication components. It is therefore tried by the inventor to develop an improved structure that eliminates the disadvantages existing in the conventional structure for assembling fiber-optic communication components.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a structure facilitating easy assembly of fiber-optic communication components. The structure includes a lower and an upper support being provided with small and big V-shaped cuts, respectively, for receiving optical fibers and collimators, respectively. The upper support is inverted to seat on a middle recess of the lower support, such that tangent planes passing top points of the optical fibers and the collimators are contained in horizontal planes passing openings of the small and the big V-shaped cuts, respectively, and axes of the collimators are either in alignment with or horizontally coplanar with axes of the optical fibers.
Another object of the present invention is to provide the above-described structure facilitating easy assembly of fiber-optic communication components, wherein the small V-shaped cuts include a first and a second small V-shaped cut correspondingly provided and spaced on the lower support for receiving and locating an input and an output optical fiber, respectively, the big V-shaped cuts include a first and a second big V-shaped cut correspondingly provided and spaced on the upper support for receiving and locating a collimator and a mating collimator, respectively, and the lower and the upper supports together define a positioning cavity between them for receiving function elements between the collimator and the mating collimator, so that optical alignments and adjustments of the input and the output fibers could be simplified while the fibers are well aligned, and the whole fiber-optic communication components could be easily assembled to effectively control the manufacturing cost and the productivity thereof.
A further object of the present invention is to provide the above-described structure facilitating easy assembly of fiber-optic communication components, wherein the positioning cavity may be designed into different dimensions to match with different function elements to be received in the positioning cavity, so that assembly of different fiber-optic communication components having effectively reduced dimensions could be easily achieved.